Drug War Victims

Been lurking for a couple years now actually, never have much to say usually but i like this place. Dont know the deneral consensus concering drugs here but this kinda bugs me so i thought id make a first post finally

John Adams

64 years old
Lebanon, Tennessee
October, 2000

Shot to death during a SWAT drug raid while watching TV. The house didn’t match the description on the warrant.
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Rev. Jonathan Ayers

28 years old
Toccoa, Georgia

September, 2009 After meeting with a parishioner who was under surveillance by drug cops, the pastor went to a Convenience store ATM. Coming out, he was confronted by men waving guns. He didn’t know they were undercover cops, and was shot to death while driving off, fearing for his life.
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Xavier Bennett

8 years old
Atlanta, Georgia
November, 1991

Xavier was accidentally shot to death by officers in a pre-dawn drug raid during a gunfight with one of Xavier’s relatives
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Delbert Bonnar

57 years old
Belpre, Ohio
October, 1998

Shot 8 times by police in drug raid. They were looking for his son.
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Veronica Bowers
35 years old

Charity Bowers
7 months old

In the air over Peru
April, 2001

As part of a long-standing arrangement to stop drug shipments, U.S. government tracking provided the information for the Peruvian Air Force to mistakenly shoot down a Cessna plane carrying missionaries. Killed in the incident were Roni Bowers, a missionary with the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, and her daughter, Charity. In 2008, a new report surfaced indicating widespread problems with the shoot-down program that had been withheld from Congress by the CIA.
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Rudolfo “Rudy” Cardenas

43 years old
San Jose, California
February, 2004

Rudy was a father of five who was passing by a house targeted by narcotics officers attempting to serve a parole violation warrant and the police mistakenly thought he was the one they were there to arrest. They chased Cardenas, and he fled, apparently afraid of them (they were not uniformed). Cardenas was shot multiple times in the back.

Dorothy Duckett, 78, told the Mercury News she looked out her fifth-floor window after hearing one gunshot and saw Cardenas pleading for his life. “I watched him running with his hands in the air. He kept saying, ‘Don’t shoot. Don’t shoot,’” Duckett said. “He had absolutely nothing in his hands.”
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Jose Colon

20 years old
Suffolk, New York
April, 2002

Jose was outside the house where he had come to repay a $20 debt, when a drug raid on the house commenced. He was shot in the head by SWAT
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Troy Davis

25 years old
North Richland Hills, Texas
December, 1999

During a no-knock raid to find some marijuana plants he was growing, he was shot to death in his living room. There are disputed accounts regarding whether he had a gun.
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Anthony Andrew Diotaiuto

23 years old
Sunrise, Florida
August, 2005

Anthony worked two jobs to help pay for the house he lived in with his mother. He had permit for a concealed weapon because of the areas he traveled through for his night job. Sunrise police claimed that he had sold some marijuana, and because they knew he had a legal gun, decided to use SWAT. Neighbors claim that the police did not identify themselves. Police first claimed that Anthony pointed his gun at them, and later changed their story. Regardless, Anthony was dead with 10 bullets in him, and the police found 2 ounces of marijuana. Article.
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Annie Rae Dixon

84 years old
Tyler, Texas
January, 1993

Bedridden with pneumonia during a drug raid. Officer kicked open her bedroom door and accidentally shot her.
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Patrick Dorismond

26 years old
New York, New York
March, 2000

Patrick was a security guard who wanted to become a policeman. He was off-duty and unarmed when he went out with friends. Standing on the street looking for a taxi, he was approached by undercover police who asked to buy some marijuana from him. Patrick was offended by the request (he didn’t use drugs), and a scuffle ensued. Dorismond was then shot to death by the police.
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Shirley Dorsey

56 years old
Placerville, California
April, 1991

Rather than being compelled to testify against her 70-year-old boyfriend (Byron Stamate) for cultivating the medicinal cannabis she depended upon to help control her crippling back pain, Shirley Dorsey committed suicide. She saw it as the only way to prevent the forfeiture of their home and property. Despite her suicide, Stamate was sentenced to 9 months prison, and his home, cottage, and $177,000 life savings were seized.
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Juan Mendoza Fernandez

60 years old
Dallas, Texas
September, 2000

Police found a variety of drugs when they raided the Fernandez’ home. However, Juan apparently believed he was the victim of burglars during the raid, and was shot while trying to protect his 11-year-old granddaughter. He and his wife had been married 36 years and had four children and 13 grandchildren.
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Curt Ferryman

24 years old
Jacksonville, Florida
August, 2000

Undercover agents were attempting to arrest Ferryman, who was in his car and unarmed. A DEA agent knocked on the car window with his gun to get the suspect’s attention, and the gun went off, killing him as he sat in the car
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Derek Hale

25 years old
Wilmington, Delaware
November, 2006

A retired Marine Sergeant who served two tours in Iraq, was peacefully sitting on the front stoop of a house, when police in unmarked cars who had him under surveillance (believing based on his acquaintances that he might be part of a narcotics ring) pulled up and tasered him three times, causing him to go into convulsions and throw up. Because he had not gotten his hand free from his jacket quickly enough (while convulsing) an officer then shot him point blank in the chest with three .40 caliber rounds. Hale’s widow has filed a civil lawsuit.
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Willie Heard

46 years old
Osawatomie, Kansas
February, 1999

SWAT conducted a no-knock drug raid, complete with flash-bang grenades. Heard was shot to death in front of his wife and 16-year-old daughter who had cried for help. Fearing home invasion, he was holding an empty rifle. The raid was at the wrong house.
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Clayton Helriggle

23 years old
Eaton, Ohio
September, 2002

Clayton was shot to death while coming down the stairs during a suprise raid. He was carrying either a gun or a plastic cup, depending on the report. Less than an ounce of marijuana was found.
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Esequiel Hernandez

18 years old
Redford, Texas
May, 1997

Hernandez was shot and killed by a Marine sniper in camouflage who was part of a military unit conducting drug interdiction activities near the Mexican border. Esequiel was out herding his family’s goats and had taken a break to shoot at some tin cans with his antique rifle.
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John Hirko

21 years old
Pennsylvania
1997

An unarmed man with no prior offenses was shot to death in his house by a squad of masked police. In a no-knock raid, they tossed a smoke grenade in through a window, setting the house on fire. Hirko, suspected of dealing small amounts of marijuana and cocaine, was found face down on his stairway, shot in the back while fleeing the burning building. When the fire was finally put out, officers found some marijuana seeds in an unsinged plastic bag. The Town of Bethlehem settled the resulting lawsuit for $7 million+ and an agreement to reform police department procedures and training.
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Lynette Gayle Jackson

29 years old
Riverdale, Georgia
September, 2000

Shot to death in her bed by SWAT team
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Kathyrn Johnston

88 years old
Atlanta, Georgia
November, 2006

Kathryn lived in a rough neighborhood and a relative gave her a gun for protection. When she noticed men breaking through her security bars into her house she fired a shot into the ceiling. They were narcotics officers and fired 39 shots back, killing her. The police had falsified information in order to obtain a no-knock search warrant based on incorrect information from a dealer they had framed. After killing Johnson and realizing that she was completely innocent, they planted some marijuana in the basement. Eventually their stories fell apart federal and state investigations learned the truth. Additional facts have come to light that this was not an isolated incident in the Atlanta police department.
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Officer Ron Jones

29 years old
Prentiss, Mississippi
December, 2001

Officer Jones was in the process of serving a drug warrant, based on an informant tip. While trying to enter the rear of a duplex, he broke into the wrong apartment and was shot by the resident, Corey Maye, who had no prior record and was protecting his daughter. No drugs were found. Maye was charged with capital murder, and sentenced to death.

Corey Maye was a Drug War Victim waiting to happen. Fortunately, his death sentence was eventually overturned and he is now serving life in prison.
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Tony Martinez

19 years old
De Valle, Texas
December, 2001

Officers conducted a drug raid on a mobile home in De Valle. Martinez, who was not the target of the raid, was asleep on the couch when the raid commenced. Hearing the front door smashed open, he sat up, and was shot to death in the chest
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Peter McWilliams

50 years old
Laurel Canyon, California
June, 2000

Peter was a world-famous author and an advocate of medical marijuana, not only because he believed in it in principle, but because it was keeping him alive (he had AIDS and non-Hodgkins lymphoma). After California passed a law legalizing medical marijuana, Peter helped finance the efforts of Todd McCormick to cultivate marijuana for distribution to those who needed it for medical reasons. Federal agents got wind of his involvement, and Peter was a target for his advocacy. He was arrested, and in federal court was prevented from mentioning his medical condition or California’s law. While he was on bail awaiting sentencing, the prosecutors threatened to take away his mother’s house (used for bail) if he failed a drug test, so he stopped using the marijuana which controlled his nausea from the medications and allowed him to keep them down. He was found dead on the bathroom floor, choked to death on his own vomit.
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Ismael Mena

45 years old
Denver, Colorado
September, 1999

Mena was killed when police barged into his house looking for drugs. They had the wrong address.

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There are a number of commonly agreed truths in politics that none may challenge. The unions are always a problem, democracy equals elections every few years and, strongest of all, the prohibition of drugs is the only sane approach.

When Tories want to get back to basics and revive Victorian values they never propose the widespread taking of laudanum - or pervasive prostitution for that matter - but some sort of weird never-existed morality of Rich Tea biscuits and Songs of Praise.

The prohibition approach is essentially reinforced by two groups. First the Daily Telegraph types who, on hearing someone's skinning up some skunk, are more likely to call the RSPCA than the drug squad. Second by politicians who know full well how to play the game and so would not dream of having an honest conversation on the subject.

However, outside of the Westminster cliques there is a growing angst that the war on drugs simply has not worked.

Indeed among those who deal with these issues professionally it's fair to say that it is now consensus that the war on drugs has not worked. However, before you step away from failed authoritarian approaches you need to take a deep breath, which by definition requires inhaling.

Brighton & Hove Chief Superintendent Graham Bartlett recently said that his officers "will continue to enforce the law as it stands. However, my personal view is that while production, supply and trafficking are and should remain crimes, the use of drugs is not well addressed through punitive measures."

He continued: "Providing people with treatment not only resolves their addiction - thereby minimising risk of overdose, drug-related health issues, anti-social behaviour and dependence on the state, for example - but cuts the cost to the community by reduced offending."

The idea of treating drugs as a public health issue rather than a law enforcement one is gaining ground, even in government circles where at least the velvet glove is starting to see sense if not the iron fist.

Last month the Liberal Democrat conference voted in favour of a panel to consider decriminalising the use of all drugs, the so-called Portuguese model.

Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies said that "far from reducing the supply of drugs, prohibition has actively encouraged their use. It's a policy that has failed."

Another delegate said: "Particular groups, such as disadvantaged black males, are disproportionately stopped by the police on suspicion of minor drug offences, breeding disaffection and alienation among whole communities."

We shall have to wait to see whether this becomes coalition policy as top Tories wrestle between the sensibilities of the Conservative old guard and their privately held convictions.

For example in 2002 a young David Cameron, free from the chains of office, said: "Authoritarians have to accept that the world has changed and hounding hundreds of thousands - indeed millions - of young people with harsh criminal penalties is no longer practical or desirable."

So what is the Portuguese model of drug reform? Essentially it entails the decriminalisation of possession of all drugs and using the money that would have been spent locking people up on treatment centres.

These centres benefit twice over because of added funds and because those they treat are no longer pushed into the shadows of criminality.

Portugal took this radical step 10 years ago and in that time there has been a stunning drop in substance abuse and deaths, as much as by half from some reports.

Instead of pushing the poor into jail and addiction they are taking real steps to help people get well.

The illegal drugs trade itself kills people even before we begin to look at any casualties of the substances themselves.

The international market in drugs is responsible for murder and misery that connects the users in Europe and the US with victims in Mexico, Colombia and many other places.

As the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs said, "People found to be in possession of drugs for any personal use and involved in no other criminal offences should not be processed through the criminal justice system but diverted into drug education awareness courses or possibly other more creative civil punishment."

As opium production increases in Afghanistan we have a political culture in the West that forbids elegant solutions like buying that opium and using it to produce medicines for the poor.

Taking those farmers out of an illicit trade and building the economy of Afghanistan has become undoable due to Western hypocrisy.

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said recently: "In this age of austerity, when we are told that every penny of public spending must be justified, nobody is checking whether the war on drugs is value for money or money and effort wasted ... in the long term, a more evidence-based drugs policy will help us to prevent crime and protect our communities from the worst effects of drug abuse."

However, as resignations from the previous government's advisory body showed, there has been a long-running unwillingness to listen to evidence when it risks potentially damaging headlines in the Daily Mail. Labour continues to be blinkered on the issue.

When Ed Miliband was asked about decriminalisation, he admitted that "any politician who claims to have all the answers on this is wrong" but refused to countenance any change of course from our current wrong-headed approach because it would "send a signal." A signal that we're willing to try to address the issue perhaps.

Real reform of the drugs laws are essential because it's an issue that effects millions, can create misery in working-class communities and leads otherwise law-abiding, sensible people into criminality and risking their health.

Legalising drugs, supporting addicts in the open, regulating quality, opening up a space for real drugs education and taxing the industry could do so much good, but our political culture makes it difficult to even discuss it.

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With it nearing 50,000 dead below the border america still seems to not give a shit so I figured I might be able to start somewhere enlightening people on the casualties here. As Ive began to look into why its still going on Ive learned more about the shadyness behind it (dont claim to know everything but what i find sickens me)

“The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws,” the company’s most recent annual filing noted. “For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them.”
-corrections corperation of america- in case your wondering about the privitized prison thing.
Its an industry built on the misery of man. They lobby to get more crazy laws passed,it seems if they could have it their way spitting on the side walk would get you life.
And to appeal to conservatives, whats wrong with individual liberties, personal responsibility, not wasting money,and cutting out an unnecessary part of government. Its toted as a liberal thing but it seems pretty conservative to me other than the moral part, but that seems incredibly unamerican. Ive more or less stolen all my info damn near verbatim from the site I posted earlier if you read through it. But it makes way more sence than the same horseshit you here from polititians. thanks for your time btw

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Drug wars?? Are rarely in first world countries and if they are rarely out of the projects...when they do happen in those rare cases very few actual innocents get killed...so the drug war is in turn the safest war any have fought in the past 200 years!

You guys want to read drug casualties then read Good Guy, Bad Guy by Lavigne (sp). I am pretty sure it has a different name for publishing now but there is a whole chapter on fucked up crimes by drug addicts...I am going to see if I can find that!